The present invention relates to backings for surface coverings, and more particularly relates to backings which contain recycled material as well as methods of making such products and incorporating them into surface coverings.
At the present time, most of the post-consumer vinyl backed carpets and carpet manufacturing waste go to landfills or are destroyed by other means such as burning. With the environment being of a global concern, the disposal of vinyl backed carpets and manufacturing waste which is currently done is not an acceptable option.
Further, recycling of vinyl backed carpets has been attempted but at most, manufacturers have taken recycled material and reduced it to liquid plastisol form in order to form a carpet backing with conventional coating and curing processes. However, such a process has limitations in that only very small amounts of recycled material can be incorporated into a plastisol mix, such as about 5% or less by weight, and because the oil absorption of recycled material is very high, high levels of plasticizers in plastisols are needed which can lead to further problems. With high levels of plasticizers and plastisols, further processing by conventional methods can become difficult, if not impossible.
Thus, there is a desire by manufacturers to develop ways to use recycled material like carpet backing, such that large amounts of recycled material can be incorporated into products.